Kimi: If you write me off, you don't know me

In a fascinating interview first 'aired' in AUTOSPORT magazine last month, Kimi Raikkonen tells Edd Straw why he has lost none of his motivation and how he's just as blindingly fast as he ever was as he embarks on his return to F1 with Lotus

What brings Kimi Raikkonen back to Formula 1? At the most fundamental level, sure, we can accept his assertion that after a couple of years in rallying he realised that he missed the thrill of wheel-to-wheel racing. From there, it's hardly a giant conceptual leap to conclude that he would want to get back into grand prix racing.

But it's unlikely to be as simple as that. After all, this is a guy who turned his back on the sport at the end of 2009 and who, for whatever reason, failed to close a McLaren deal for '10 that would have allowed him to continue to win races.